Roman Torres has taken about the most scenic route to Madison a 23-year-old can manage. He started kicking a ball at a Dallas YMCA at four, spent a decade coming up through FC Dallas, and from there went chasing a pro career the hard way — a stint in Germany, a junior-college year in Iowa, a season at Creighton, a first-round SuperDraft call, and a toughen-up loan to Birmingham — before landing at Forward Madison and immediately looking like one of the best players in the league.

We sat down with Roman for the full story, kicking off, fittingly, with the road that gives this episode its name. He takes us back to the Y and the indoor field where FC Dallas first found him, getting worked by the Real Madrid and Barça academies at the Dallas Cup, watching the draft stream on a loop at his grandparents' house while his dad teared up, and Googling Minneapolis winters with nothing but a Creighton puffer to his name. We get into the Player-of-the-Week start at defending champion Knoxville, why he treats the plaudits as a privilege rather than pressure, and the one part of his own game he still isn't satisfied with.

We also dig into the football he's actually playing right now — the set-piece craft he built staying late at Creighton, the growing understanding with Claudel N'Goubou, and the one-touch goal with Derek Gebhard against the Cosmos that Mitch has watched roughly twenty times and counting. Roman tells us what's really behind this run of home form, Mark Segbers' captaincy chief among it, and what it took to grind through the season's brutal early travel and finally get back to Breese in front of the Flock.

And because no road to Madison is complete without a roommate and a dog, we close with the JT Harms saga — how a goalkeeper who once drove Roman nuts with a ten-save game ended up his roommate — and the long-haired miniature dachshund who actually sealed the deal: Chica Lebron Doncic Torres. Four names. You only hear all of them when she's in trouble.

Mitch Osmond spent four years as the backbone of Forward Madison FC's defense, captained the club through its best-ever finish, and was supposed to come back in 2025 and finish the job. Instead, injury ended his playing career before he got the chance to go out on his own terms.

We sat down with Mitch for a full career retrospective — from NAIA soccer in Indiana to the MLS SuperDraft, from Indy Eleven to the club he made his home. We talk about what those four years in Madison meant, the 2024 USL Cup Final that still stings, and what it felt like to watch a final season slip away from the sideline.

We also get into what comes next — and honestly, Mitch is keeping his options open. Coaching? Maybe. Something in the game? Possibly. Firefighter? Astronaut? He's not ruling anything out. Whatever it is, we're glad he found some time to sit down with us first.

And we close with something we've been sitting with since Mark Segbers went down — because Mitch knows better than most what it means to be a captain watching from the outside.

Fresh off a Man of the Match performance in Naples — five saves, a clean sheet, and two back-to-back stops in the dying minutes against the league leaders — Forward Madison FC goalkeeper JT Harms joins NDZ Live for a wide-ranging conversation about his remarkable journey to professional soccer.

From accidentally stumbling into goalkeeping at age nine in Crocs, to boarding at Shattuck-St. Mary's at fourteen, training with Columbus Crew's first team as a teenager, and representing the US Youth National Team — Harms has always found himself in rooms where he was the youngest and least experienced. He talks about what that forged in him.

We cover the Duke years, the injury, the captaincy before the starting spot, and the move to Indiana where he had to earn everything from scratch — sharing time with Bryant Pratt before making the No. 1 jersey his own across three seasons and three Big Ten titles. We also dig into the friendship with FC Dallas' Sam Sarver, a bond that has followed both players from Columbus to Bloomington to Dallas.

Now back in his home state for the first time as a professional, Harms talks about what it means to wear the Flamingo badge, life on the road, and what this young, hungry group is quietly building ahead of the home opener on May 16.

The boys are back. After a longer than expected hiatus, Andrew, Grant, and Mitch reunite for a jam-packed episode covering everything that's happened at Forward Madison FC since January — and a lot has happened.

After catching up on two months of roster news, the crew sits down with both of the Matts: Sporting Director Matt Cairns, making his NDZ Live debut, and Head Coach & Technical Director Matt Glaeser, for a wide-ranging preseason roundup ahead of the March 14th season opener at One Knoxville SC.

The conversation covers the thinking behind one of the most internationally diverse rosters in club history, what preseason has actually revealed about this group, and whether this rebuild represents genuine organizational evolution or just a different roll of the dice. There are also some big questions about what this season could mean for a fanbase that's bruised but still showing up — and why it might matter more than usual.

Plus: the Polar Plunge, Kanté comps, walk-out songs, and a question about whether Kerfalla Toure has been on the ice yet.

Season Eight starts now.

This one starts with a bit of housekeeping and a real one: Assistant Coach Neil Hlavaty heading to Spokane Velocity, and what his exit signals for a Forward Madison club that’s clearly reshaping itself on and off the field.

From there, we spend most of the episode with Mark Segbers, and it’s less about the highlight reel and more about the long arc. Segbers talks growing up in St. Louis, coming up in a full, energetic household, and finding his footing at Wisconsin before a pro career defined by drafts, loans, and the steady grind of the USL Championship. There’s perspective on MLS environments, winning locker rooms, and how your relationship with the game changes when you’ve seen a few different versions of it.

We wrap by zooming in on why Madison makes sense now—familiarity, trust in the club’s new direction, and the role veteran voices like Segbers can play as FMFC leans younger and builds something that looks intentionally different than past iterations.

Measured, reflective, and very much about the path, not just the destination.

Episode 90 feels like a turning of the page. We unpack Forward Madison’s biggest philosophical shift in years with the arrival of Sporting Director Matt Cairns—what “evolution, not disruption” actually means, and why 2026 already feels different. We also dive into roster news with the return of Derek Gebhard, the additions of Mark Segbers and Ryan Carmichael, and what those moves suggest about balance, continuity, and intent.

Plus: first reactions to the newly released 2026 schedule, expectations reset, and a little end-of-era reflection as FMFC closes one chapter and starts writing the next.

2025 was a tough one to take. 2026 can only be better, right? A major roster overhaul looms as FMFC hires a Sporting Director. It's a season-ending extravanganza!

After a month-long radio silence (injuries, life, and too many Forward Madison road games), the NDZ crew staggers back to the mics to catch up on everything we missed—from laying eggs in Greenville to Crull and Gebhard milestones and Damia Viader's perfectly unnecessary villain arc. We talk heel injuries, the first away win since March, and the glimmer of hope: Madison might actually still be alive in the playoff race. Also featuring foot golf conspiracy theories, unearned optimism, and the DG Effect™ as a legitimate field of study.